Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein trav­els across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovers how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on or­ganized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining.

Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help cor­porations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local commu­nity forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs.

What emerges through Loewenstein’s re­porting is a dark history of multinational corpo­rations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world’s most valu­able commodity. Disaster Capitalism is published by Verso in 2015 and in paperback in January 2017.

Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar.
Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom, published in 2013 and released in an updated edition in 2014, challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it. It is released in an updated edition in 2014.

Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? And Where do we find hope?
We are introduced to different belief systems – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position.
Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters. Antony Loewenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam.
Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake, published in 2013, encourages us to accept religious differences, but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.

After Zionism, published in 2012 and 2013 with co-editor Ahmed Moor, brings together some of the world s leading thinkers on the Middle East question to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and to explore possible forms of a one-state solution.
Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Jewish colonization of Palestinian land. Although deep mistrust exists on both sides of the conflict, growing numbers of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs are working together to forge a different, unified future. Progressive and realist ideas are at last gaining a foothold in the discourse, while those influenced by the colonial era have been discredited or abandoned. Whatever the political solution may be, Palestinian and Israeli lives are intertwined, enmeshed, irrevocably.
This daring and timely collection includes essays by Omar Barghouti, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Antony Loewenstein, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ahmed Moor, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss.

The 2008 financial crisis opened the door for a bold, progressive social movement. But despite widespread revulsion at economic inequity and political opportunism, after the crash very little has changed.
Has the Left failed? What agenda should progressives pursue? And what alternatives do they dare to imagine?
Left Turn, published by Melbourne University Press in 2012 and co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, is aimed at the many Australians disillusioned with the political process. It includes passionate and challenging contributions by a diverse range of writers, thinkers and politicians, from Larissa Berendht and Christos Tsiolkas to Guy Rundle and Lee Rhiannon. These essays offer perspectives largely excluded from the mainstream. They offer possibilities for resistance and for a renewed struggle for change.

The Blogging Revolution, released by Melbourne University Press in 2008, is a colourful and revelatory account of bloggers around the globe why live and write under repressive regimes - many of them risking their lives in doing so.
Antony Loewenstein's travels take him to private parties in Iran and Egypt, internet cafes in Saudi Arabia and Damascus, to the homes of Cuban dissidents and into newspaper offices in Beijing, where he discovers the ways in which the internet is threatening the ruld of governments.
Through first-hand investigations, he reveals the complicity of Western multinationals in assisting the restriction of information in these countries and how bloggers are leading the charge for change.
The blogging revolution is a superb examination about the nature of repression in the twenty-first century and the power of brave individuals to overcome it.
It was released in an updated edition in 2011, post the Arab revolutions, and an updated Indian print version in 2011.

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Israeli’s Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – and likely future Prime Minster – has announced his plans if Kadima wins the March 28 election. The Jewish state must “separate” from the Palestinians, he claims. An independent Palestinian state is impossible, however, if these ideas are implemented:

“We will hold on to the major settlement blocs (in the West Bank). We will keep Jerusalem united.”

Hamas may have a few things to say about that, as they should. If the international community is serious about building a contiguous Palestinian state, Olmert’s comments should be condemned as the expansionist Zionism that they are.

Israel will do what it wants in this regard, and the world will do nothing about it. And the world has no reason to do anything about it. The Palestinian people have said "No Peace" when they elected Hamas.

orang

And before Hamas' election they were on the brink of a peace agreement? Haw Haw!We know all about Israel's ability to do what it wants with no-one stopping them.Their little quandary is not that they can't do what they want, but they want to be seen as being noble while they're doing it.See, we're not destroying Mrs Habib's house because we want the space. No, we're doing it because Hamas are a terrorist organisation and they won't renounce violence and they deny the Holocaust, and they want to push us into the sea! LMPG!*Can you blame us? You get it, don't you?*Let my people go.

Wombat

And what kind of peace did Israel have in mind when they supported and finance hamas during it;s birth in the early 70's and 80's OshKosh?What kind of peace did Israel have in mind when it elected a war criminal to become it's leader?Simple minded ignorance.

Rich Bowden

"And what kind of peace did Israel have in mind when they supported and finance hamas during it;s birth in the early 70's and 80's OshKosh?"Strong accusation Addamo. Can you support this with links etc?

addamoWhat is your agenda on this site? Are you aligned with a political group of some sort? You have posed this Israeli-Hamas link many times on this blog. What are you trying to prove?Why would you regard it as a bad thing that in the 1970s Israel provided some funding for a religious-inclined group to support the Palestinians with social services and pastoral care? Are you trying to say that Israel should not have done this? This was 25 years ago! Yes, Hamas, like much of the Muslim world turned to radical and violent political Islam, but not until the 1980s.Are you going to tell us that in 1789 the US Democrats didn't support the Jacobins and therefore we should all believe that Hillary Clinton is secretly a monarchist?Please. You seem to have an obssessive hate for Jews that is very unnerving in the current climate.

Wombat

Viva Peace said… “What is your agenda on this site? Are you aligned with a political group of some sort? You have posed this Israeli-Hamas link many times on this blog. What are you trying to prove?”I have no agenda. I am just fed up with blinkered and simplistic crap about Hamas this and Hamas that from those who are evidently ignorant of where Hamas got it's beginnings.As you can see, the history of Hamas was news to Mr Bowden.It is also very pertinent to many of the conflicts taking place in the world right now. It is an example of blowback, a lesson which the US and Israel seem unwilling to learn from.“Why would you regard it as a bad thing that in the 1970s Israel provided some funding for a religious-inclined group to support the Palestinians with social services and pastoral care? Are you trying to say that Israel should not have done this? “While you are correct that Hamas provided these services (and did so most efficiently), these were not the reasons Israel supported them. You cannot deny that Israel’s agenda was purely to produce a foil for the PLO.“This was 25 years ago! Yes, Hamas, like much of the Muslim world turned to radical and violent political Islam, but not until the 1980s.”25 years is a very short period of time. Approximately 25 years ago, the Soviets went in Afghanistan, did they not? And who was arming the mujahadeen at the time? Are you not starting to see a picture here?Hamas were opposed to the PLO and had long standing conflicts with them. Israel saw this as an opportunity to split the Palestinian movement. The oldest trick n the book – divide and conquer.“Are you going to tell us that in 1789 the US Democrats didn't support the Jacobins and therefore we should all believe that Hillary Clinton is secretly a monarchist?”The Jacobins are just a bunch of parasites who shape shift to any political party that happens to hold the reigns of power. The Republican’s are playing host at the moment. What’s your point?“Please. You seem to have an obssessive hate for Jews that is very unnerving in the current climate.?"I have no hate for Jews at all. You seem to have mistaken me for someone who does. Jews are just people, like any other and whther a person is Jewish or not makes no difference to me.None of my posts ever mention Jews, though they may certainly mention Israel. Two very different issues. Yes I do take exception to Israeli policies towards Palestinians and Israel’s unconstructive influence in Washington.

Progressive Atheist

Recently we had a poster named Neoleftychick who was anything but a lefty. Now we have a poster named viva peace who is anything but a peacenik. Both are using the same modus operandi of using their names to pretend to be the opposite of what they are. Maybe they are the same dishonest person.

Progressive Atheist

Kadima Chairman Ehud Olmert, Labor Party head Amir Peretz and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu will declare their support for the legislation of a comprehensive constitution for the state of Israel in a special session of the Knesset plenum scheduled for February 13 to mark the founding of parliament. This is something the ultra-Orthodox Jews have traditionally opposed because it "usurps" the Torah. http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/679516.htmland <a href="http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/<br />I hope there is provision for the separation of "church and state," or should that be "synagogue and state"? But is that really likely? Can anyobe imagine what a secular Israel would look like? It would virtually end the apartheid state since it would cease to give Jews preferential treatment.